A Simplified Version of The Racing Rules of Sailing
There’s no disagreeing that there are a lot of rules to know when racing sail- boats. But just as in every other sport, you don’t need to know and completely understand them all before you go racing. I love to play soccer, and I’ve got the basic rules down: keep my hands off the ball, try to kick the ball into the goal to score, try not to kick the other guys in the shins and stop when the referee blows the whistle. I’m still a bit hazy on what “offsides” means, what the difference between an “indirect” and a “direct” kick is, and just how many elbows in the ribs I’m supposed to peacefully accept as part of the game. But I still have a great time playing, and I learn a bit more about the rules each time I go out. Here then are a few basic rules you should know so that you can get into
racing without feeling like you’re just in everyone’s way. At first, take the racing easy just to get the feel of how it works; and never be worried about asking too many questions; that’s exactly how we all learned what was up. Of course, the one danger in learning just the basic rules is that there will be places on the course where there are exceptions or where the actual rule has more detail. So you should really take the time to read through this book. It’s written in language that is easy to understand. The more you race, the more situations you’ll run into that are exactly as covered and described here, and the sooner you’ll be comfortable enough to get in there and mix it up out on the course.
